Well, valid preferences look like they’re derived from a utility function that says how much I prefer different possible future world-states, and uncertainty about the future should interact with the utility function in the proper way.
Um, no. Unless you are some kind of mutant who doesn’t suffer from scope insensitivity or any of the related biases your uncertainty about the future doesn’t interact with your preferences in the proper way until you attempt to coherently extrapolate them. It is here that the distinction between a bias and a valid preference becomes both important and very arbitrary.
Here is the example PhilGoetz gives in the article I linked above:
In Crime and punishment, I argued that people want to punish criminals, even if there is a painless, less-costly way to prevent crime. This means that people value punishing criminals. This value may have evolved to accomplish the social goal of reducing crime. Most readers agreed that, since we can deduce this underlying reason, and accomplish it more effectively through reasoning, preferring to punish criminals is an error in judgement.
Most people want to have sex. This value evolved to accomplish the goal of reproducing. Since we can deduce this underlying reason, and accomplish it more efficiently than by going out to bars every evening for ten years, is this desire for sex an error in judgement that we should erase?
Um, no. Unless you are some kind of mutant who doesn’t suffer from scope insensitivity or any of the related biases your uncertainty about the future doesn’t interact with your preferences in the proper way until you attempt to coherently extrapolate them. It is here that the distinction between a bias and a valid preference becomes both important and very arbitrary.
Here is the example PhilGoetz gives in the article I linked above:
I believe I answered your other question elsewhere in the thread.